Gaming - Page 888

Crytek is getting into the gaming spirit in a better way this year, by opening up their upcoming multiplayer-focused Hunt: Showdown with a closed Alpha starting soon.

Hunt: Showdown has gone through enough of its own problems during development, with concept changes, name changes, and multiple issues at Crytek itself in the meantime. But that hasn't stopped the team from pushing out more details on Hunt: Showdown, and now the closed alpha.

If you don't know about Hunt: Showdown, it's Crytek's new free-to-play, 4-player co-op first-person shooter dunked in a Van Helsing-like / Civil War-era with steampunk-inspired weapons.

After nearly 8 years of leadership, Activision CEO Eric Hirschberg is leaving the publisher.

Since 2010 current acting Activision CEO Eric Hirschberg has presided over some massive hits for the publisher including the most recent Call of Duty WWII--and some failures, too, like Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. However that tenure is coming to an end as Hirschberg prepares to depart the company by the end of the current fiscal year in March 2018.

"Serving as Activision's CEO has been an honor and a thrill," Hirshberg told GameSpot. "This is an amazing company, one which routinely delivers epic experiences for our fans on a scale that no one else can. I have nothing but admiration for the incredible team I have had the privilege to lead. And I have nothing but appreciation for Bobby Kotick for giving me this transformational opportunity, and also for having the vision and conviction to champion a creative person for a leadership role on this scale."

Artificial intelligence may one day find its way into the billion dollar revenue stream of in-game microtransactions.

In a recently leaked paper, a data firm recently outlined how AI could be used to propel players to in-game purchases even further than lootboxes and other engagement-monetizing schemes. The paper outlines a few key instances where an in-game AI would offer a prompt to let players know that if they spend money, they could do X better, whether X is aiming, finding better loot, you name it. Essentially rather than having publishers control the engagement cycle in how players are typically led towards these purchases, an AI would do it instead.

This abstract could neatly fold into EA's new experimental SEED division, which includes AI among its many next-generation technology focuses. Other publishers like Blizzard, Activision, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft (and of course EA) could benefit tremendously from this new method...but only if it's handled just right.

Apparently Fable isn't dead after all, and Microsoft is keen on filling the very noticeable void of first-party games in its Xbox One lineup.

Playground Games' new unannounced project is a fresh entry in the Fable series, sources have told Eurogamer. The game should be follow the typical formula of open-world RPG, but also may have service-based elements of some form simply because Microsoft thrives on online engagement via Xbox LIVE.

However it appears the new Fable game could be primarily singleplayer-driven, especially after how Fable Legends fell apart. Sources say Microsoft was interested in resurrecting Fable because of Sony's big win with Horizon: Zero Dawn, which sold over 3 million copies on PS4. Of course the Xbox One's install base is lower than Sony's PS4, but the publisher could make up for it in other ways, such as in-game purchases and other monetization options.

Next month Metal Gear Survive will be released, it has been discovered that the game will feature microtransactions and also the requirement of a constant internet connection.

Konami has joined a large amount of modern day releases by implementing micro-transactions into their game. Metal Gear Survive will have an in-game store that will allow players to purchase virtual currency that can also be obtained through standard gameplay.

Konami has not revealed what these micro-transactions will officially be as of yet, but from the image below we can see that most of the ones available are boost packs which can be assumed are for experience gains. As the game is not complete yet, these micro-transactions could be a subject of change, as the community gives their feedback.

Days before the launch of Dragon Ball FighterZ, a new character has been revealed in the latest issue of the V-Jump magazine, Android 21 with a majin buu makeover.

Reported by Gematsu, Bandai Namco has revealed that the next fighter to join the lobby of playable characters within Dragon Ball FighterZ is going to be Android 21.

Android 21 was revealed to us back in September, but all that was known is that she played a pivitol role in the games storyline. What is most interesting about Android 21 is her appearance, even though she is an Android character it appears that a transformation can occur which turns her into a Majinn Buu like creature.

A week ago we learned that the new God of War isn't going to be an open world game, and now more news has surfaced with what the games special edition is going to be on release.

A listing on GamStop's website has revealed what the special edition will be providing players, bonuses to the additional game will include collectables such as a statue, carvings, a digital comic, artbook and more.

Not only will players receive real-life collectables but also a bunch of digital content is provided as well such as a in-game armor set, custom shield and a dynamic theme. From the GameStop listing, it appears that the Stone Mason Edition will be priced at $150.

Bandai Namco has taken the stage to squash any further speculation to whether the remastered version of the original Dark Souls will support cross-platform play, unfortunately it will not.

IGN has reached out to Bandai Namco to see if they could comment on whether cross-platofrm play would be a feature or if the company has decided against it. The reply from the representative is most unfortunate news as Dark Souls: Remastered "will not have cross-platform play."

Dark Souls: Remastered is planned for release on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. The current release date is on the 25th of May.

Phil Spencer has been synonymous with the Xbox brand for what feels like forever, but Spencer has recently moved into a position where he is planning the grand strategy for games, while ex-Minecraft boss Matt Booty will be in charge of executing said strategy in games publishing.

Booty will be reporting directly to Spencer, while the rest of the studio bosses will be reporting to Booty. Spencer spoke with Venture Beat, where he said: "I wanted to make sure we had the right organization in place to deliver on our content goals. With that, I made the decision that I wanted to anoint a leader of our Microsoft Studios organization, which if you've tracked it, I've had the leaders of our individual franchises reporting to me for the last three and a half years".

Spencer continued: "That's been great in driving our all-up strategy and getting us to the point where Satya was willing and eager to make the investment in gaming that he's made, but it's also become very clear to me that we're going to invest more in content, which we are doing, and that a unified studios leadership organization was going to be critical to our long-term success. I've asked Matt Booty to step up into the role of leading Microsoft Studios".

Capcom has announced that Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition will be heading to owners of Street Fighter V completely free of charge.

The updated version of the game will be featuring a bunch of new modes, balance updates and extra unlockable content that has been built on from the original Street Fighter V. Owners of Street Fighter V and now owners of Street Fighter V: Arcade Mode, will be joining the same player pool as PS4 fighters, as the game will still be a cross-platform experience once you decide to test your luck online.

Here is the description from the Street Fighter YouTube channel for the new update:

DICE has released their new Star Wars Battlefront 2 patch which has brought a new wave of stability to the game. From the release notes released by DICE, patch 1.1 is also bringing Iden Versio's TIE/In fighter to multiplayer matches.

The patch will also be including stability improvements, bug fixes and also balance tweaks to Heroes and weapons. The full patch notes are located below and give a more detailed description of each of the changes coming to the game.

Patch 1.1 will be automatically downloaded once players launch their Origin client.

Last week we saw Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Rise and Fall announce a new leader titled Georgia, this week we now have a detailed video explaining the gameplay changes in the upcoming expansion.

Players will not have to wait for the launch of the expansion to figure out changes as Firaxis has released a YouTube video detailing each of the changes.

The new expansion is due for release on February 8th which will give birth to all of this new content mentioned in the video. Even though players will know what to expect when it comes down to game-play mechanics, they will not know how it feels to experience them or play against them.

For a game that originates back into the ancient days of PlayStation 1, Dynasty Warriors has come quite some way, and now the game will be stepping into the open world genre.

Koei Tecmo has released a new trailer showcasing the featured highlights for the upcoming hack and slash fighter. Within the trailer it is shown that the new game will encourage free roaming if players desire to challenge their skills in open battle.

Strangely enough, Dynasty Warriors 9 is not just going to be mindless, hacking through waves of enemies but instead, the new game is going to feature a cooking skill.

Bandai held their Dragon Ball FighterZ open beta last week, the service experienced network issues that couldn't immediately be fixed which has now caused the developer to reward their players with a another 24 hours of open beta testing.

There were no details on the date of the second open beta, or if there would be more fighters made available for players to test. In the first open beta, players could play through the games tutorial and online multiplayer modes. 11 characters were available over the course of the weekend beta which included Nappa, Vegeta, Goku, Piccolo, Krillin, Cell, Android 18, Frieza, Beerus, Kid Buu, Gohan (Adult).

DICE is making some pretty big changes to their Operation Campaigns in Battlefield 1, and I'm sure it's from the continued heat the game is getting in the form of lacking players because they're too busy enthralled with Battlegrounds or Fortnite.

The developer has announced that BF1 players can play all Operation Campaigns, no matter if they have Battlefield 1's Premium Pass, or purchased the maps as a standalone DLC. Gamers without the DLC won't have access to them outside of Operations Campaigns, meaning that when you're finished with the campaign, the content is locked.

If you don't own the DLC, you won't have access to the additional weapons, elites, and more. Still, DICE has work to do on Battlefield 1 and I feel like BF1 has been an experiment gone wrong. Battlefield: Battle Royale wouldn't surprise me at this point.

More and more gamers are buying indies on their Nintendo Switch platform, showing that AAA games aren't always all the rage.

The beloved hard-as-nails platformer Super Meat Boy is actually doing pretty good sales-wise on Nintendo's new handheld-console hybrid. In fact, according to the devs at Team Meat, the indie is pretty high up there in purchases and almost even surpassed the game's original launch some 7+ years ago.

"Super Meat Boy on Switch first day sales came shockingly close to it's debut on Xbox 360 back in 2010. That's. nuts," Team Meat said on Twitter.

Square Enix has confirmed that mods will be available for Final Fantasy XV's impending release on PC.

A few months ago Final Fantasy XV game director Hajime Tabata said he'd like to put mods in the PC port of the game, and now the team is living up to his wishes. In an official announcement Square Enix says that "ongoing mod support" will come to the Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition when it releases on March 6, but no exact details were cemented in place. We also don't know the limitations of these mods, but it's still a great indicator on the game's open-ended roadmap (last year I called FF15 the new Skyrim for good reason) and how the publisher sees the title.

Here's what Tabata said back in 2017:

Square Enix has locked in the PC spec requirements to play Final Fantasy 15, along with a release date...and the hardware reqs aren't too bad.

A while back reports surfaced that Final Fantasy 15's Windows Edition on PC had a beefy recommended spec requirement of an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, but the publisher quickly said this isn't true. Fast forwarded to many weeks later and we see the open-world RPG can actually be played with an AMD R9 280 graphics card, showing just how much Square Enix has scaled the game.

Minimum specs to play FF15 on PC at 720p resolution include an R9 280 or an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 or GTX 1050 video card, an Intel Core i5-2500 or an AMD FX-6100 CPU (3.3GHz and above), and 8GB of RAM. Recommended specs to play at 1080p include a GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB of VRAM or an AMD RX 480, an Intel Core i7-3770 (3.4GHz and above) or an AMD FX-8350 (4GHz and above), and 16GB of RAM.

A new website has been opened by SEGA titled "Senki" which only features a clock ticking down 3 days from now. It is expected that once the clock finishes its countdown a new title from SEGA will be announced.

We have a few things to go on in terms of figuring out what the next title could be, the cloudy atmospheric art style should be noted, as well as the floating islands that is seen in the background. A key hint could be the clock featured in the middle which for some reason is not ticking at a traditional 12-hour interval.

Two more hints that SEGA has given away is the title of the website "Senki" meaning "War Record" and also when the website went live it was categorized as "Arcade Game."

Sony has announced that they have opened sign-ups for the upcoming v5.50 firmware beta for PlayStation 4. The sign-up program is designed for PlayStation users to have access to testing future features and improvements that could be on the way to the console.

Registering to become a beta tester can be done here and will allow users a chance at testing new features ahead of the initial launch of the firmware update. Currently the beta is only available in Japan as of this moment, but it is expected that the beta service will also be going live in Europe and North America sometime within the next week or two.

PlayStation beta testers for last October's software update (5.00) had access to try new features such as Family on PlayStation Network, friend list management and message improvements. Sony has said that "they will be back soon" with what features will be available this time round, so stay tuned for future updates.